Would I be able to have a tuxedo urchin in a 5.5 gallon nano reef?

[Tired]

As a general rule, don't buy an animal for a system you don't have in your possession. Too many things can get in the way of upgrading. Once you have the 20gal, then you can buy the urchin.

I found this last month on my back porch that I thought was interesting. It appears to be a mud dauber nest that had juvenile GOW inside eating the mud daubers until they exhausted the food supply and somehow all got trapped inside

Were any of the spiders able to move? Mud daubers stuff their nests with paralyzed spiders, which their larvae feed on after hatching. More likely, that's what happened. Very cool find, but normal behavior for mud daubers. It takes a dauber to seal the nest up with mud, after all.

 

[dan55]

As a general rule, don't buy an animal for a system you don't have in your possession. Too many things can get in the way of upgrading. Once you have the 20gal, then you can buy the urchin.


Were any of the spiders able to move? Mud daubers stuff their nests with paralyzed spiders, which their larvae feed on after hatching. More likely, that's what happened. Very cool find, but normal behavior for mud daubers. It takes a dauber to seal the nest up with mud, after all.

Oh wow I did not know that about the MDs. I thought all those GOWs were dead but they may have all been paralyzed.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Hmm, Mud Dabbers eat Spiders and put them in their Nest to feed the Nymphs. We had a Rule where I worked, not to touch Mud Dabber Nests, do to the Large Population of Black Widow Spiders.

 

[Karliefish]

Don’t worry, I’m not getting an urchin now. I was planning on waiting a month or two if I even get one. I just didn’t want to get other invertebrates now or soon if I wouldn’t be able to have them with an urchin. I’ve decided against getting hermit crabs because I don’t want them to kill my snails.

I got 10 tuxedo urchins early on (tank was two months old) in my 365G reef tank when it was going through the “ugly” phase. All of them have doubled in size and are doing very well. They were definitely responsible for shortening my new tank ugly phase.

 

[areefer01]

I'll probably get the smallest tuxedo urchin I can find once my tank has been stable for another month or two. I'm planning on upgrading to a 20 gallon eventually so hopefully I'll be able to do that if the urchin gets too large.

If you want small, and captive bred, then look at Vossen Aquatics. They arrive very, very, small but of course will grow over time. I would wager most will balk at the price but captive bred is the future of this hobby. I recently ordered 5. Three went into my refugium (18 gallons) and two in my display (210 gallons). The ones in my refugium grew faster and are larger when I compare them to my display. I've sense moved one from the refugium to display so now it is 3 display, 2 refugium.

How it will work in a 5 gallon nano is hard to say. Once the display is running day to day and more natural there probably will not be a lot of algae for it to eat. The right balance of herbivores be it fish or snail or other is really important regardless of display size so 5 gallons isn't going to be much different in the grand scheme of things. Fish withstanding.

If you want you could try one and prepare for supplemental feeding. Nori sheets would be one. Also macro algae another. Also maybe a wafer. While doing so check to see if it actually eats it. No one wants to starve slowly so in this case the onus is on the hobbyist to feed, and feed well, so it doesn't happen.